Writing Magic: Politicizing Fan Culture

Fan behaviours in online communities can easily translate to political activism.

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, the most inexhaustible form of magic we have, capable both of inflicting injury and remedying it.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

Fans are no doubt aware that online fanfics and the communities in which they circulate house rich critiques about gender, sexuality, race and identity. In fact, many fan writers deliberately insert feminist discourse, gender theory, and class commentary into their stories to make complex academic theories accessible for all readers. Fan works, with their remixing, genderfucking, and racebending, have become the literature of contemporary social movements. (After all, art imitates life.)

But, in addition to the words themselves, fan communities have always served a potent political function: a subversive resistance to the status quo, a system of production in which writing, art, and music are capital. “Accidental” or otherwise, fans have become activists. Passionate, resourceful, and no strangers to standing outside in long lines, these fans have taken to the streets to rally, educate, and resist oppressive policies by governments and corporations.

forms of civic engagement and political participation that emerge from within fan culture itself, often in response to the shared interests of fans, often conducted through the infrastructure of existing fan practices and relationships, and often framed through metaphors drawn from popular and participatory culture.

According to Jenkins, the behaviours involved in participating in fandom can easily translate into real-world activism. Many fan activists who take part in larger social movements once found their footing through fandom-based grassroots campaigns and the solidarity that emerges within fan communities.

Perhaps the most obvious example of these “translatable” political behaviours is fan-led campaigns to save television shows from cancellation. Letter-writing campaigns and mobilization across social media networks have proven highly successful in keeping shows like Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, Chuck, and Supernatural on the air.

In fact, Star Trek’s longevity can be attributed to the solidarity of its original female fanbase. In the late 1960s, Star Trek fan Betty Joe (Bjo) Trimble organized the first, and most effective, fan-led letter writing campaign in history. This campaign inundated NBC studios with more than 110,000 letters protesting the cancellation of Star Trek: The Original Series. Bjo Trimble became affectionately known in the fandom as “The Woman Who Saved Star Trek.”

Later that decade, a group of young fans gathered outside of NBC studios in New York City holding picket signs to protest the show’s impending cancellation. What we saw was fans taking their ardent passion for “their” favourite show and translating it into a collective grassroots movement. The legacy of fans as active consumers has continued with future generations of fans and has become even more vociferous with the advent of the Internet. Revelist reporter Victoria McNally goes as far as to claim that “women who love ‘Star Trek’ are the reason that modern fandom exists.”

Taking part in fan-led campaigns to pressure network executives to keep television shows on the air or to demand more inclusivity can lead to participation in (and, in some cases, creation of) larger activist networks. Fandom has paved the way for the emergence of activist organizations like the Harry Potter Alliance, Fans4Writers, Nerdfighteria, and the Organization for Transformative Works (which houses the most extensive open-source, non-profit, multi-fandom fanfiction archive, Archive of Our Own). The language of fan communities (“shipping,” “cosplaying,” “canon,” “crossover,” “slashfic,” “Mary Sue,” “OTP”) has become part of the popular lexicon and even used during protests (“Cosplay is not consent.”). Like Dumbledore says, words are our “most inexhaustible form of magic,” so keep calm and write on until our fictional utopias lift off the page.

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Malory has taken her interest in fandom to the academy, penning a Master's thesis entitled "Out of the Cupboards and Into the Streets!: Harry Potter Genderfuck Fan Fiction and Fan Activism." You can find her in Nova Scotia, sipping coffee, writing fiction, and reading slash.

9 Comments on Writing Magic: Politicizing Fan Culture

I never would have thought of some of these fan-driven movements as being political in nature but of course they are. Your examples illustrate what any group, with sufficient motivation and organization, can accomplish. Thank you for an interesting read!

Absolutely! Fans and fan activists help to bridge the gap between everyday life and the larger social injustices of the world. And they often do so by using their skills to make fanart, manips, and costumes that borrow imagery from pop culture, a universal language. I think it is very telling that Princess Leia became the face of “the resistance” at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. (I wrote more about this here, if you’re interested!)

This was a fun read! Thank you for posting it. I was aware of fan movements in general, but didn’t know anything about letter writing campaigns. It’s cool to see the fandom power, and to see how it empowers the people it touches.

Thank you for reading and for your lovely comment! It’s really incredible to think about all these Trek fans coming together to coordinate such a successful campaign, especially prior to the Internet. Very inspiring, indeed.

As someone who participated in the original letter writing campaign to save Star Trek, I can assure you that our fandom is still active and activist. Witness our new organizations that are Star Trek creators, actors, and fans taking a stand against the threats to democracy.

Wow, so glad you enjoyed it! The political nature of fanfiction and fan communities is a topic I’m really interested in. In fact, I have a “Part 2” article in this series being published in the near future. Thank you for reading and commenting!

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FAN/FIC is an online magazine for fanfic readers and writers. We publish compelling articles and personal essays about fan culture, practical advice on how to improve your craft, and interviews with people in the community.